Diagnose yourself mental health
Take a Mental Health Test
Online screening is one of the quickest and easiest ways to determine whether you are experiencing symptoms of a mental health condition.
Mental health conditions, such as depression or anxiety, are real, common and treatable. And recovery is possible.
Depression Test The Depression Test is for individuals who are feeling overwhelming sadness. The depression test is also available in Spanish.
Take Depression Test
Postpartum Depression Test (New & Expecting Parents) This test is for new and expecting parents who began feeling overwhelming sadness during pregnancy or after their child's birth.
Take Postpartum Depression Test (New & Expecting Parents)
Anxiety Test The Anxiety Test is for people who feel that worry and fear are affecting their ability to function day-to-day. The anxiety test is also available in Spanish.
Take Anxiety Test
Psychosis Test The Psychosis Test is for people who feel like their brain is playing tricks on them (seeing, hearing or believing things that don't seem real or quite right).
Take Psychosis Test
Bipolar Test The Bipolar Test is for people experiencing mood swings—unusual or extreme shifts in mood and energy.
Take Bipolar Test
Eating Disorder Test The Eating Disorder Test can help explore eating related concerns that have an impact on your physical health and overall well-being.
Take Eating Disorder Test
PTSD Test The PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) Test is for those who are experiencing ongoing distress after a traumatic life event.
Take PTSD Test
Parent Test: Your Child’s Mental Health The Parent Test helps parents determine if their child’s emotions, attention, or behaviors might be a mental health concern.
Take Parent Test: Your Child’s Mental Health
Youth Mental Health Test The Youth Test is for young people (age 11-17) who are concerned that their emotions, attention, or behaviors might be signs of a problem.
Take Youth Mental Health Test
ADHD Test The ADHD Test is for people (both youth and adults) who have trouble focusing, remembering things, completing tasks, and/or sitting still.
Take ADHD Test
Addiction Test The Addiction Test is for people who are concerned about their use of alcohol or drugs.
Take Addiction Test
Test de depresión El test de depresión es para los individuales que sienten una tristeza abrumadora. También está disponible en inglés.
Tome el Test de depresión
Test de ansiedad El test de ansiedad es para las personas que sienten que la preocupación y el temor afectan su vida cotidiana. También está disponible en inglés.
Tome el Test de ansiedad
Self-Injury Survey The Self-Injury Survey is for people who have hurt themselves on purpose without wanting to die.
Take Self-Injury Survey
Connection and Well-Being Survey The Connectedness and Well-Being Survey is a chance to reflect on how your connections to nature, spirituality, and other people affect your mental health.
Your answers also help us develop better mental health supports for people like you!
Take Connection and Well-Being Survey
After your mental health test, you will see information, resources, and tools to help you understand and improve your mental health.
How can online mental health testing help me?
What do my mental health test results mean?
Please note: Online screening tools are meant to be a quick snapshot of your mental health. If your results indicate you may be experiencing symptoms of a mental illness, consider sharing your results with someone. A mental health provider (such as a doctor or a therapist) can give you a full assessment and talk to you about options for how to feel better.
This website is an informational resource. We are not a crisis support line. If you need immediate help, you can reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988 or using the chat box at 988lifeline.org/chat.
You can also text “MHA” to 741-741 to reach the Crisis Text Line. Warmlines are an excellent place for non-crisis support.
For all other screening-related questions and non-emergency support, please use MHA’s Contact Us form.
Mental Health America Inc., sponsors, partners, and advertisers disclaim any liability, loss, or risk incurred as a consequence, directly or indirectly, of the use and application of these screens.
Work Health Survey
This is a not a mental health screening but a survey meant to help us identify strategies to help companies do better. The survey is updated annually.
Take the work health Survey
MHA Screening is made possible through the generous contributions of individuals and organizations that share our vision of mental health for all. This program is supported, in part, through philanthropic contributions from Abbvie, Alkermes, The Anthem Foundation, The Faas Foundation, Janssen, Neurocrine Biosciences, The NFL Foundation, Sage Therapeutics, Takeda Lundbeck Alliance, and Teva.
What do my mental health test results mean?
Taking an online mental health test is one of the quickest and easiest ways to determine whether you are experiencing symptoms of a mental health condition. The mental health tests on this site are free and confidential—and you can see the results right away. But what do those results actually mean?
What mental health tests can and can’t do
The mental health tests available on this site are the same ones used in doctor’s offices and counseling centers around the world. Researchers have studied these questions rigorously and found that they provide a pretty accurate picture of your mental health.
But if you look closely at the results page, you’ll see lots of statements like “your results indicate that you may be experiencing signs of severe depression.” Why can’t we just say “you have severe depression” and be done with it?
Diagnosing mental health conditions is complicated. There’s no “depression virus” we can do a blood test for.
Mental health isn’t really black and white—everyone feels depressed or anxious some of the time. The line between sadness and depression can feel very fuzzy.
On top of that, there’s a lot of overlap between mental health conditions. Sometimes what looks like depression is actually a medical problem, like a slow thyroid. Many people first get diagnosed with one condition, but later find out they actually had something else all along. It’s also possible to have more than one mental health condition at once.
When a doctor or therapist diagnoses someone with depression, they usually have more to go off of than answers to a few multiple-choice questions. They might notice that you move slowly and that your posture is slumped. Maybe you have bags under your eyes from not sleeping. If you meet with your therapist regularly, they can also notice changes over time—like when your voice isn’t quite as expressive as it usually is.
These are often indicators of depression—but they are also the kinds of things that an online test can’t detect.
Mental health professionals can also ask you more open-ended questions, and they can provide clarification if you’re not sure how to answer.
A mental health test is just the beginning
If a mental health test provides an incomplete picture of your mental health, where can you go to fill in the other details?
One way is to reach out to a mental health professional who can provide you with a diagnosis. They can also either provide treatment (like therapy or medication) or help you figure out where else you can get it.
Learning more about mental health can also help you figure things out. The more you learn about anxiety, for example, the more you can start to recognize anxiety when you feel it. Hearing other people’s stories also helps you understand your own experiences—and it helps you feel less alone too. Lots of people share their stories in online communities like Reddit and TikTok or on websites like The Mighty.
A word of warning: It’s easy to try and “diagnose yourself” by reading WebMD and lurking in social media communities.
For example, many people nowadays are falling into “ADHD TikTok”, where people describe the lesser-known quirks of ADHD. If you find yourself identifying with what people are saying in these videos, you might have ADHD. But you can’t know for sure just from watching videos. Like online mental health tests, videos and blogs are a good starting point, but not the be-all-end-all.
The more time you spend learning about mental health from all different sources, the more you’ll be able to put the pieces together and get a complete picture.
How all this information can help you
Having a better understanding of yourself and your experiences is an empowering start. But at the end of the day, the reason any of us want to know which mental health condition we have (if any) is so that we can figure out how to feel better.
Sometimes there are very specific actions you need to take for specific mental health conditions. For example, taking a mood stabilizer like lithium can be very helpful for someone who has bipolar disorder—and completely useless for someone who doesn’t.
But most of the things you can do to improve your mental health will help you no matter who you are, what condition you have—or whether you even have a mental health condition or not. (We don’t all have a “mental illness”, but we do all have mental health!) Some of these things include:
- Talking to supportive loved ones
- Getting better sleep
- Eating nutritious foods
- Keeping a mental health journal
- Improving our self-talk (treating ourselves with compassion instead of beating ourselves up)
- Doing enjoyable activities that help us feel happy and relaxed
- Deep breathing, grounding exercises, and mindfulness/meditation
- Meeting with a therapist regularly
- Joining a support group
You don’t have to work on all these things at once. Pick one or two that seem the most achievable for you, and the most likely to help. Once you make a habit of those (or figure out they don’t seem to help after all), try a few more.
Remember—mental health is a journey. Give yourself a pat on the back! You’ve already started that journey just by being on this site.
Why is it important to pay attention to your mental health?
Why is it important to pay attention to your mental health?
Many have heard the catchphrase "all diseases are from the nerves." However, as a simple and natural step in case of bodily ailment to seek medical help, just as often the state of stress, anxiety, depression of mood are left without proper attention.
It is known that when people receive appropriate mental health care, they do not often seek medical help in general. There is evidence that people with unresolved mental health problems visit general practitioners twice as often as those who receive specialized, psychiatric and psychological care.
Excessive anxiety and stress can contribute to the development of certain heart diseases, weaken the immune system.
Psychological problems also increase the likelihood of incorrect behavioral choices, which manifests itself in addiction to smoking and drugs, alcohol abuse. There is a close relationship between the psyche and the physical state of a person. Feelings of anxiety, constant stress and worries can lead to poor health. People who care about mental health tend to achieve great success, both professionally and personally. Mental health is important in terms of communication, especially in the family. It allows you to maintain a healthy atmosphere in the circle of close people, properly educate children, giving them the necessary care and a psychological model to follow. Mentally healthy people are more resistant to the influence of negative social factors, less prone to the formation of "bad habits". Thus, when a person is free from depression, anxiety, excessive tension and worry, he is able to live fully, fully realized and enjoy.
The state of mental health can only be fully assessed by a specialist.
However, for the current assessment of one's own state or the state of the psyche of relatives and friends and making a decision on seeking help, it is enough to pay attention to a number of simple criteria.
1. Sleep state. Difficulty falling asleep, restless sleep, unusually early awakenings, and, conversely, increased drowsiness, lack of a feeling of rest upon awakening - all these are sleep disorders that may indicate a dysfunction of the nervous system, and, in themselves, lead to its overstrain, but, means an increased risk of psychiatric disorders.
2. Health level. Mental performance is characterized by the activity of mental processes: attention, memory, thinking. A decrease in mental performance, manifested in the form of insufficient memory functioning, problems with concentration, and difficulty making decisions, can be a sign of many mental disorders and diseases.
3. Emotional state. The emotional sphere is extremely sensitive to various manifestations of trouble.
The predominance of negative emotional reactions (bad mood, tearfulness, irritability, anger), their unusual and high intensity, especially in situations of inconsistency with the situation in which they manifest themselves, difficulties in managing their own emotional state - all these are reasons to pay attention to the state of mental health.
4. Behavioral changes. For any person, there are habitual ways of responding in different life situations, due to character traits and life experience. A sharp departure from the usual forms of behavior, an unexpected change in stable views, the absence of an obvious connection between such changes and life events can be manifestations of emotional and mental distress.
Mental health criteria
12/14/2021 Views: 4109
Mental health, as defined by the World Health Organization, is a state of well-being in which a person can realize their own potential, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively and productively, and contribute to their community.
Mental health is the stability of the psyche, which enables the individual to remain adequate in society.
The World Health Organization lists the following criteria for mental health:
Ø Awareness and feeling of continuity, constancy and identity of one's physical and mental "I".
Ø Feeling of constancy and identity of experiences in similar situations.
Ø Criticality towards oneself and one's own mental production (activity) and its results.
Ø Correspondence of mental reactions (adequacy) to the strength and frequency of environmental influences, social circumstances and situations.
Ø The ability to self-manage behavior in accordance with social norms, rules, laws.
Ø The ability to plan one's own life and implement these plans.
Ø The ability to change the way of behavior depending on the change in life situations and circumstances.
The World Health Organization has stated that mental disorders affect about 12% of the world's population - approximately 450 million or one in four people worldwide suffer from mental illness, and could benefit from diagnosis and treatment.
Mental health and mental illness is part of any country, culture, age group and is independent of socioeconomic status.
Let's take a closer look at how the mental component of health is formed at different stages of a person's life. Regardless of social or ethnic origin, a person living in modern society must have a set of certain psychological traits that ensure social adaptation, i.e. successful functioning in this society. These traits are usually formed as a more or less orderly progress through the various stages of development. Each of the stages is characterized by a set of tasks that a person must cope with and a set of traits that he must acquire in order to better prepare for the next stage. Thus, the judgment of a person's mental health must be related to the stage of his development, as well as his genetic heritage and cultural environment. The stages of development can be summarized as follows:
● Birth to 3 years . In addition to the elementary skills of voluntary movement and self-control, verbal and non-verbal means of expression, the child must learn to trust the world of adults, to realize the continuity of the existence of objects and people, even during periods of their absence.
● 3 to 6 years . During this period of increasing independence and initiative, the child develops his ability to establish relationships, share what he has, make elementary moral judgments, and identify himself and others with male or female.
● 6 to 13 years old . This is a relatively crisis-free period during which the child consolidates previously acquired skills, begins to develop a moral sense during games and other participation in group activities, and adapts to an extra-family environment.
● 13 to 19 years old . This period is accompanied by a sharp jump in physical (mainly sexual) development and a conflict associated with future role expectations. Typically, this period begins with almost unquestioning adherence to peers, then moves into a phase of exploration and experimentation, and ends with moving away from parents and developing their own style, goals and attitudes.
● Maturity. In most communities, this period involves having plans related to marriage, children and work, the acquisition of rational, realistic attitudes and goals, the ability to distinguish thought from action, the ability to care for others.
During the involutionary period, which usually begins in the sixth decade, the loss of friends and narrowing of opportunities can cause episodes of depression. However, even in this period there are sources of satisfaction, especially if there are grandchildren or the aging person is respected in his environment.
It should be noted that mental health does not mean freedom from anxiety, guilt, depression and other negative emotions. Since it implies relative freedom from psychological problems , it is the ability to overcome them that is important here . Thus, the presence of these problems is not yet a sign of illness, but the inability to learn from experience and the stereotyped thinking and behavior indicate trouble in the emotional sphere.
Famous psychoanalyst Nancy McWilliams described 16 signs of mental health . They cover all areas of human life: relationships with oneself, with other people and the world as a whole.
1. The ability to love. Love for others motivates a person to give rather than take. When we love, we want to trust and open up to another person, to sympathize and help. Self-love helps to feel your own needs, take care and accept yourself as you are, with all the advantages and disadvantages. Love is an emotion that heals the soul.
2. Ability to work. And this applies not only to the profession. This is generally the ability to perform tasks that a person sets himself or receives from outside.
3. Ability to play. It would seem that the game is a child's occupation. Meanwhile, adults who have retained the ability to play are highly creative, have a good sense of humor, flexibility and imagination, and at any age remain inquisitive and ready to learn new things.
4. Ability to build and maintain stable relationships. In other words, the capacity for secure attachment.
Signs of attachment of a safe type in adults:
Ø ability to withstand anxiety and the state of one's own emotional vulnerability;
Ø readiness for emotional intimacy in relationships;
Ø fairly high level of trust in the world;
Ø confidence in one's relationships and in a partner;
Ø the ability not to succumb to fears, but to test them by comparing them with objective reality;
Ø Feeling comfortable in closeness, but also maintaining personal independence.
5. Autonomy. This quality is based on a sense of one's own strength and independence. It allows a person to do what is useful for him in a given situation. In the brain, the search engine and the hormone dopamine are responsible for this quality. Autonomy, like the ability to play, is directly related to curiosity and the ability to learn.
6. Integrated concept (permanence of self and object). This is the ability to be in contact with various aspects of one's own personality (pleasant and not very pleasant), the ability to perceive oneself as integral in time and accept the changes that are taking place, withstand conflicts and not collapse.
7. The power of the ego. Ability to recover from stress and adapt to different situations.
8. Realistic and reliable self-assessment. Many people evaluate themselves too strictly, while others, on the contrary, have an overestimated self-esteem. A person with normal self-esteem is able to see his shortcomings, but generally treats himself well.
He perceives criticism in his address without much anxiety and resentment, is able to learn from his mistakes without making excessive demands on himself. The reliability of self-esteem is manifested not in the complete absence of dependence on someone else's opinion, but in the rapid restoration of self-esteem to its previous level after it has been wounded.
9. System of value orientations. Values are the moral center of the personality and at the same time its internal support. The value system provides answers to the question of what is good and what is bad, and determines the choice of a person. The formation of a value system occurs throughout life, but the core values remain largely unchanged.
10. Tolerance to experiencing intense emotions. To endure the intensity of emotions means to feel your emotions, to be in contact with them and at the same time not to act under their influence, but to be guided by rational motives in your behavior.
11.
Reflection. Looking at oneself as if from the outside. People with developed reflection usually see well what exactly is their problem, and, therefore, they can find a solution to it as quickly and efficiently as possible.
12. Mentalization. Understanding that other people are separate individuals, that they can be very different from us, have their own characteristics and needs. Not every action of them is related directly to us, but may be caused by personal (unknown to us) motives.
13. Possession of multiple options for effective psychological defenses and flexibility in the use of coping strategies.
14. Balance between your own interests and the interests of your environment. It is a balance between what we do for our environment and what we want and do for ourselves. In other words, a balance between giving and receiving.
15. Vitality. Feeling alive. "Death" can arise as a protection against unbearable pain, and then a person can function normally, but internally be as if lifeless.
A truly “living” (vital) person is one who feels his body, his emotions, who is able to perceive objective reality with the help of his senses and respond to requests received from outside - incentives.
16. Humility. Acceptance of what we cannot change and the ability to sincerely grieve for what cannot be obtained. This is a recognition of one's imperfection, one's limitations, and sometimes impotence.
Taking care of your mental health is just as important as taking care of your physical health. Here are some tips to help you maintain a good mental state.
1. Develop a good opinion of yourself.
According to mental health professionals, high self-esteem is the best tool we can use against life's difficulties. Research shows that people with high self-esteem have more confidence in themselves and their abilities.
2. Eat well
Diet plays a crucial role in mental health. It is important to have a healthy diet.
3. Exercise regularly.
Exercise plays a positive role in your mental health. They trigger chemical reactions that have been proven to reduce anxiety and stress and put you in a good mood.
4. Learn to manage stress.
Stress is a part of life, so you must learn to deal with it in order to keep your sanity. Discover the source of your stress so you can find ways to better deal with it.
5. Enjoy the present.
Learn to focus on the present, not on past or future events. It will help you enjoy the little joys of life that you might otherwise miss out on.
6. Find work-life balance.
If you feel like you are spending too much time and energy on one part of your life, your work-life balance may be disturbed. Learn to do both! The best way to do this varies from one person to another. Find the strategy that works best for you.
7. Get enough sleep.
Lack of sleep affects your mental health as it can cause emotional and psychological problems.
Go to bed at a reasonable time and try to get 8 hours of sleep. This will help you achieve maximum recovery and face the next day with more energy.
8. Cultivate relationships.
Developing and maintaining strong personal relationships is very good for your mental health. So work on building good relationships with the people around you, whether at home, at work, or in your community. These contacts will enrich your life and give you great support.
9. Have fun!
Taking the time to laugh and have fun will go a long way in maintaining mental health. Laughter raises morale, maintains a good mood and relieves stress. Find ways to laugh: comics, funny videos or jokes with friends.
10. Seek help from loved ones or specialists if your internal resources are not enough to stabilize your mental state.
So, good mental health is mental resistance to life problems, failures, it is the ability to find the right solutions in a stressful situation and “take a hit”, the ability to build strong relationships and recover from failures.
